Freddy Sanchez*San Francisco GiantsAge: 31 (DOB: 12/21/77) | 2009 Salary: $6.1M2009 Stats: .293/.326/.416, 7 HR, 41 RBIA .300 career hitter, Sanchez would be a nice acquisition for the Twins. The Giants say they won’t activate his 2010 option, but are interested in signing a multi-year deal with him before he hits the free agent market.Estimated Contract: 3 years, $21M

You'll remember there was a fair amount of interest around here in Sanchez prior to the trade deadline, or prior to him fighting through knee problems prior to the deadline. He ended up getting traded to the Giants, did them almost no good because of said knee injuries. So the Giants didn't activate their option and did get him to sign a multi-year deal instead. Nice job by them.

But there's plenty of silver-lining surrounding this cloud. First, Sanchez signed for less than we had predicted, which is a good sign for the market. Second, even though Sanchez isn't on the supply-side any more, the Giants aren't on the demand-side any more either. Whether or not they signed Sanchez, they were going to sign somebody, so it doesn't change the overall complexion of a plentiful second baseman market.

The next news was about the third baseman market:

Geoff Blum signs a 1-year contract for 1.5 million with the Houston Astros.

Significant? Probably not. Or at least hopefully not. Blum was the at the bottom of the list of free agent third basemen in the Handbook:

Geoff BlumHouston AstrosAge: 30 (DOB: 4/26/73) | 2009 Salary: $1.1M2009 Stats: .247/.314/.367, 10 HR, 49 RBIBlum would not be a big-name signing. Most would probably not know that Blum has played in 109 or more games each of the past 10 seasons. Although he has played nearly every position on the diamond, he has been the Astros’ primary third baseman the past two years. However, his career OPS is .700, and it has not been higher than .705 since 2002.Estimated Contract: 1 years, $1M

I'm putting this in the category of "good news" just because Blum strikes me as exactly the kind of guy the Twins might have settled for at the last minute in a Tony-Batitst-ICK kinda way. He's bad enough that I would consider Brendan Harris a better overall fit as an every day third baseman. And that's a fragment of a sentence that makes me feel unclean.

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I hope to have some very exciting news regarding the hard copy of the TwinsCentric Offseason GM Handbook by the middle of this week. Thanks everyone, for your patience.

I'll also be at the Taste of the NFL tonight. If anyone has any advice about the event, I'd love to hear it. And I'd love to talk a little Twins with you if you happen to be there too.